Last week’s Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Los Angeles had all the elements of a blockbuster event. There were scores of Hollywood celebrities, and singer Jennifer Hudson took to the stage to perform with the band Earth, Wind & Fire.

The gala also featured the biggest headliner of them all — President Barack Obama, who made a rare West Coast appearance.

Still, despite the celebrity starpower, several weeks before the event, the DNC found itself unable to sell it out and had to discount the price of certain concert tickets from $2,500 to $1,000 because big-ticket donors weren’t buying enough of them.

Ultimately, the DNC sold out the event and raised between $3 million and $4 million, but not before being reminded, once again, of the disappointing state of party fundraising.

Indeed, at a time that was supposed to be a golden era of Democratic fundraising, with a popular president in charge and Congress firmly ensconced in Democratic hands, the early fundraising hauls have been, well, downright ordinary.

Dating back to the start of the year, Democrats barely hold a financial advantage over the GOP, despite the current toothless state of the Republican Party, its dispirited base and its dim prospects of taking back control of any branch of government in 2010.

“The sense of urgency from Democratic donors dissipated for a little while. There’s a certain level of satiation out there,” said Democratic strategist Roy Temple.

“The big-money donors are going to be there; they are still going to help. But the donors driven by more ideological reasons may think momentarily that, with President Bush out of office, their problems have been solved. It will take them a little to realize there’s still Republican mischief out there.”

Add all three party committees’ fundraising totals together, and Democrats hold only a narrow money advantage over their Republican counterparts. The DNC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have raised a combined $56 million in the first four months of the year, compared with $54.9 million for the three Republican party committees. And while the DNC has picked up its fundraising pace from two years ago, the Democrats’ two congressional campaign committees are lagging behind their 2007 numbers.

Individual donors have actually given more money to the GOP committees — $37.9 million to $36.2 million, since the beginning of the year — an especially frustrating development for the party, since Democrats are in possession of Obama’s vaunted 13 million e-mail addresses that he used to shatter fundraising records during the presidential campaign.Obama’s reluctance to sully his post-partisan messaging hasn’t helped, according to some Democrats. They point to Obama’s pledge not to accept money from lobbyists and political action committees, a dictate the DNC is following in its own fundraising.

But the fundraising predicament is nevertheless beginning to worry some leading Democratic strategists, who wonder whether the party will have enough money to defend the large number of vulnerable members representing politically tenuous states or districts.

“There are a lot of races across the country this cycle, and in this economic environment, people are concerned whether or not they’ll have the resources they need,” said a senior Democratic strategist familiar with the party’s fundraising apparatus. “People are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They’re hopeful that [next month’s] presidential fundraiser will be very successful, and they’re watching closely.”
Some Democrats dismiss the hand-wringing as unwarranted, arguing that the economic recession has dampened political giving across the board.

“Because they have been funded by large-dollar institutional donations while we have relied on small-dollar grass-roots donations, the GOP has historically outraised us, including last year,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan. “But we know where we need to go and have a plan in place to get there. Whether it’s Minnesota or the New York 20 special election — and despite not taking PAC and lobbyist money — we are pleased with the results so far.”

Sevugan also argued that the DNC’s early fundraising slowed down because newly minted Chairman Tim Kaine, who also serves as governor of Virginia, refrained from fundraising during the state’s legislative session, which ended in February.

There’s some optimism that the fundraising numbers will soon pick up; the first four months of fundraising reflect only one party committee fundraiser that Obama headlined: a March event for the DNC. Party operatives fully expect to expand their fundraising advantage over Republicans once the money is tallied from the Los Angeles fundraiser and after the president headlines a June 18 fundraiser for the DSCC and DCCC.

That fundraiser comes at an opportune time for the congressional committees, which still hold debt from attempts to expand the playing field last year. The DCCC is $7.3 million in the red, while the DSCC owes $4.58 million.

Former President George W. Bush raised an average of $23 million for the Republican congressional campaign committees during their annual President’s Dinner from 2001 to 2008 — and even raised about $24 million in 2008, at a time when the president faced rock-bottom approval ratings.

“I’m not concerned about the Democrats’ ability to have a real fundraising advantage when it really counts going into 2010,” said Democratic fundraiser Jonathan Mantz, who served as Hillary Clinton’s finance director during the presidential campaign. “After the presidential election, there’s an exhaustion, a donor fatigue that everyone experiences. Coming off a presidential election, it takes time to recharge your batteries.”